The poll was conducted for Y'all Politics by Triumph Campaigns, a company owned by U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker campaign manager Justin Brasell. Prior to withdrawing and entering a special election for the Cochran seat, McDaniel had briefly run against Wicker for that seat.

The poll showed Democrat Mike Espy and Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith neck and neck for the special election at 33.1 percent and 33 percent, respectively, with McDaniel a distant third at 12.8 percent.

State Democratic Party Chairman Bobby Moak also questioned the veracity of the poll and Brasell's ties to Wicker.

A poll commissioned by the Espy campaign last month — before a fourth person, Democratic Tupelo Mayor Jason Shelton, entered the race — also showed McDaniel in third behind Espy and Hyde-Smith but with a much tighter margin for McDaniel.

Watson declined comment on that poll.

Alan Lange of Y'all Politics and Brasell defended the Triumph polling and challenged McDaniel to disprove the data of the poll released Monday. He said Y'all Politics has used Triumph before, along with other polling firms.

"Folks can argue with the data if they want, but we couldn't have been more transparent about the results or how we got there," Lange said. "We published the poll script, the results and the crosstabs in their entirety."

Brasell said his company does automated telephone polling for candidates across the country.

"Why is he attacking me and not the data?" Brasell said. "Where's his data? We put out the questionnaire and the crosstabs. We didn't weight the poll. What's his issue with the data?"

Watson said he knows of no polling done by the McDaniel campaign or supporters at this point.

Some politicos questioned the Y'all Politics/Triumph poll of 1,000 likely voters being heavily female, 66.5 percent to 33.5 percent male. Lange said the poll was not weighted but instead showed "all our cards laying face-up." Provided crosstabs indicate results are not greatly skewed by gender or other demographics.